A Rough And A Rocky Place
by soul-of-insanity16
Summary: War drives you to the corner of a cliff and makes you stumble back. Sometimes someone catches and sometimes you fall. They weren't the falling type. A series of interconnected short stories.


A.N: Finished the Mass Effect series a while ago, DLC's included. I didn't expect a game to move me this much. But you can't help but love some character or conjure your Shepard as a real person or care about what happens to that universe. This story is sendoff for me. A look into all the characters lives during ME3 (my favorite out of all 3, the ending be damned). Read on..

_**A Rough and A Rocky Place**_

She held the console even more tightly. Their only allies till now have been the disjointed platoons of the Alliance and the few agents of the Shadow Broker. The must needed alliance of the turians and the krogan was far from stable and the phrase 'curing the genophage' didn't exactly make people sing war cries on your behalf.

Hackett's words ringed in her ear. _Get it done, Commander. _And she had to. All those people depended on her and like hell she would bring them down.

"Commander, you might want to come in the cockpit"chimed in Joker's voice from the comm.

"What? So I can watch you watch porn?"

For his benefit, he did sound embarrassed Friends or not, your commanding officer walking in on you while seeing a video of a hanar and an asari doing the nasty is something you can't ever live down. Fumbling through his sentences he informed her about the distress signal from the elcor homeworld.

"Radio them about the approach of the Normandy, here on accord of their Ambassador. EDI, run a scanner for the estimate of Reaper forces."ordered Shepard, remembering her little chat with the Elcor on the Citadel. Another species to save and another enemy to conquer.

#-#

Wrex saw her looking back at that damned console again. War was finally taking its toll on her. He hadn't seen her complain about it but he knew pent-up frustration like the back of his hand. Stuck in the role of a diplomat, he couldn't remember the last time his armour shined so much. It was the same old adventure all over again but the stakes were way bigger and the enemy a lot stronger. The rules disapproved headbutting and shooting on sight and leaned towards tactics like persuasion and clear heads. All he could do for now was smooth over things with the turians and not shoot things out of sheer boredom.

As she passed him, he called out,"Want my help with this one Shepard?"

"What? So you could bless me with your moral support?"she said, turning around to face the krogan.

"Now now. We all know those zombies scare you. Wouldn't want your crazy ass on fire while you dig a hole. I take care of my friends."

"This ass ain't gorgeous on its own", she smirked."I know how to take care of it."

"Didn't know pyjak butts were gorgeous"

She punched him on his shoulder, not lightly mind you-he would be disappointed if she did-and muttered impossible before walking out of the war room. He didn't miss that and he didn't miss the way she straightened her shoulders and held her head up.

_Well, that did the trick._

_#-#_

Wasn't it another average day, Joker thought tiredly. A Reaper had flown towards them as the Normandy had approached Dekuuna It's mounted cannon fired concentrated lasers of TNT. One direct hit and he could wave the SR2 goodbye.

His hands danced over the controls as he did a barrelroll to escape another onslaught Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dot representing Cortez's shuttle head towards the planet on his radar as he drew the Reaper's fire. All he wanted to do now was put the Thanix Cannon to a test and fire the Reaper into oblivion. But he was sane enough to know the odds of winning a battle head on with a Reaper. The broken state of his previous ship fleeted through his mind and the solemn face of Shepard as she opened her fist to show the rusted pieces of metals that once identified the dead crew of this ship. All sane reasoning blazed away for a moment. Then he felt EDI's cold hand on his shoulder and it all came crashing back. All the things he could die for replaced by things he wanted to live for.

His battle cry, _Annihilate this, asshole, _was whispered away by his indecisive thoughts.

"Should I activate the mass effect core, Jeff?"asked EDI.

"Oh no. Don't bother. Who cares about a Reaper"he answered, sarcastically. Her confused look told him that his sarcasm was lost on her. "YES. Get us the hell out of here, EDI"

"Powering the mass effect core"

The FTL drive accelerated the ship, till the Normandy was purged in blue. They were moving at the speed of light as the world around him faded to nothing. He never really got used to the feeling. Even after all these years.

#-#

He hadn't been chosen for the ground team and for once he was glad. Not glad really. It was bittersweet. James hadn't really joined the marines for the cause or to follow his daddy's footsteps like most others did back home. He had joined for the hell of it. Maybe even for the adventure.

But that need to save everyone had stuck with him after that mission from hell. And it was reignited now. He had innocently asked Garrus about the mission as he had entered the mess hall. The turian had slumped his head on the table and had given him the account. Apparently the Elcor's choice of evac-ship were massive dreadnought like starships. While it did take care of their space issue and provided heavy defences and fortifications, but their mobility was zero and the ships were like sitting ducks as the Reapers closed on them. A Sovereign class ship had wrapped itself around one and had blasted its cannon straight through the hull. The weakness was stopped and exploited.

"Though the majority of the ships escaped without critical damages.."Garrus paused and rubbed his hand along his scars. He didn't need to continue. James had the same thoughts. The same doubts. War had them counting numbers. People saved and enemies killed. But sometimes you started to count the ones you lost. And it hurt like a bitch.

Without thinking about it, he broke some eggs for the turian as well. He only realized his error when he put the steaming omelette infront of Garrus. His mandibles moved in what could be amusement or agitation How could you know with their rock like faces anyway? Garrus gracefully slided the plate towards Cortez, who had just arrived from the shuttle bay covered in black residue, and patted Vega on the back before moving towards the Main Battery.

He turned around to grab his own plate only to find it long gone and in the hands of the over-worked pilot.


End file.
